Enzymes are a necessary part of many of the detergent compositions that are currently on the market and the inclusion of enzymes in detergent compositions will undoubtedly increase in the future. One of the most important challenges facing a detergent manufacturer today is the identification of new and improved enzymes and detergent compositions. New enzymes can and commonly do include variants of known enzymes.
Several factors can affect the determination of the “improvement” of a new enzyme over an precursor enzyme, i.e., the enzyme itself, the wash conditions, and the detergent composition that the enzyme is to be mixed with. For example, an enzyme that performs well in one detergent composition may not perform as well in another. Similarly, an enzyme and/or detergent composition may perform well under one set of wash conditions, i.e., Japanese, but not another, i.e., North American. However, identifying a new and improved enzyme or detergent composition can be a time consuming task. For example, in the wake of improved technology that can allow a researcher to produce large numbers of variants in a very short time, it has become critical for the researcher to be able to assay those variants rapidly, efficiently and effectively.